They were relegated from the Premier League for the first time three years ago and Smith knows, despite their top-flight pedigree and £130million summer spend, Villa need to re-establish themselves.

He said: “Two teams finished above us last season (Norwich and Sheffield United) and they’re the new boys in the Premier League, whereas we finished below them and seem to be a more established Premier League team.

“I can see that because of the amount of money we have spent but we had to. We feel we’ve spent that well but it’s going to take time to go and compete with a lot of established teams in this league.

“It was important to get the first win, we put in a performance which deserved the result.”

The victory ended a run of 20 Premier League defeats for Jack Grealish (Nick Potts/PA)

Victory also ended Jack Grealish’s record Premier League run of 20 straight defeats.

Smith added: “If you look at the total minutes he played in those 20 games there’s probably four games in them. It’s a monkey off everyone’s back and he’ll be as pleased as anyone.”

Wesley opened the scoring after 21 minutes when he fired in across Jordan Pickford from Jota’s neat pass.

It came against the run of play but Everton never recovered and wasted two late chances.